Legend has it that the
first Graham was one Gramus who forced a breach in the Roman Antonine wall known as
Graeme's Dyke in 420 A.D. However, historians generally believe that the Grahams were of
Norman descent. The first record of the name was William de Graham who received the lands
of Aberdeen and Dalkeith from David 1 in 1127. From him descend all the Grahams of
Montrose. They became numerous in Liddesdale and the Borders and later obtained lands in
Strathearn and Lower Perthshi re, the area with which the clan is now associated. The main
line of Graham chiefs were long and loyal supporters of the Scottish cause. Sir John
Graham of Dundaff, a friend and follower of Wallace was killed at the Battle of Falkirk in
1298. His son Sir David received the lands of Montrose for faithful service to King Robert
the Bruce. The 3rd Lord Graham was created earl in 1504 and fell at Flodden in 1513.
James, the 5th earl was created Marquis of Montrose. Two of Scotlands greatest generals
have been provided by the Grahams of Montrose. James Graham, 1st Marquis led the war in
Scotland on behalf of Charles I and John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee (Bonnie
Dundee), led the highly successful campaign for James VII during which time he managed to
organise the Highlanders into a strong single force and gain great victories, notably the
Battles of Inverlochy and Killicrankie. He was so unreplaceable that the campaign
collapsed without him. It was the Marquis of Graham, later, Duke of Montrose who moved the
motion in parliament to repeal the Act of Proscription of the Highland Dress passed in
1782.

Clan Graham of Menteith
William de Graham witnessed the charter of the Abbey of Holyrood in 1128,
and was presented the lands of Dalkeith by King David I. Towards the end of the twelfth
century his descendant acquired the lands of Dundaff. Towards the end of the fourteenth
century Sir Patrick Graham of Dundaff, second son of a chief of the Grahams, married
Euphemia, heiress of Prince David, Earl of Stratherne, son of King Robert II. Their son,
Malise Graham, had the earldom of Stratherne removed from him by King James I and given to
his uncle, Robert Graham, on the grounds that his mother should not have inherited a title
whose descent was strictly through the male line, but received the earldom of Menteith
instead.

The Grahams of Esk,
Netherby, and Norton-Conyers are descended from Malise Graham's second son.

Clan Graham of MontroseThe house of Graham of Montrose stems from the younger son of William de Graham, a
descendant of whom acquired Old Montrose and lands around from Robert I (the Bruce) in
1325.

Approx in 1410, Sir William Graham of Kincardine married his
second wife Mary Stewart, second daughter of King Robert III and widow of George Douglas
(d. 1403), 1st Earl of Angus, and of Sir James Kennedy, by whom she had James Kennedy
(1408-65), Bishop of St Andrews and Lord Chancellor of Scotland (after Graham's death she
acquired a fourth husband). One of their sons, Patrick Graham (d.1478), succeeded Kennedy
at St Andrews and persuaded Pope Paul II to promote the see to an archbishopric. James
Graham (d.1747), 4th Marquis of Montrose, was created Duke of Montrose in 1707. Between
1712 and 1724, when he gave up in desperation, he prosecuted a running feud against Rob
Roy MacGregor (1671-1734).

AMONG the
ancient names of
Scotland there is none that can claim a higher antiquity than that of
"the gallant Grahams." Though the spelling and pronunciation
of the word Graham is now
Saxon, there is every reason to believe that its earlier form was
Celtic, Graem or Grim being said to be the Pictish word for soldier, and
to be derived from Gruamach or Gramach, "one of stern aspect."
A legend, recounted by the historians Fordoun, Boece, and Buchanan, runs
that it was one of the race who first, about the year 183, broke through
the Roman barrier between Forth and Clyde, and that it is from this hero
that the wall of Antoninus takes its popular name of Graeme’s Dyke. It
is possible, at the same time, that the name Graeme’s Dyke may be less
romantically derived from the word "grym" of
the ancient Cymric or British language, which signifies strength. The
Graemes or Grahams, however, appear in authentic history at a sufficiently
early period. In 1128 William de Graeme was a
witness to the charter by which King David founded the Abbey of Holyrood.
In the following century the chief of the house married a daughter of
Malise, Earl of Strathearn, and with her received considerable lands in
that district. From that time the principal seat of the family was
Kincardine Castle, on the edge of the beautiful Kincardine Glen, near
Auchterarder in Strathearn This Sir Patrick de Graham was one of the
Scottish knights who in 1296 made the disastrous attempt to relieve the castle of Dunbar, held for King John Baliol
against the English by the
famous Countess, Black Agnes. The historian
Hemingford tells how Sir Patrick, one of the noblest
and wisest of the Scottish barons, disdained to ask for quarter, and
fell in such gallant fashion as to extort the admiration of the English
themselves. The son of the marriage with the daughter of the Earl of
Strathearn was the famous Sir John the Graeme, hero of the Wars of
Independence, who rescued Wallace at Queensberry, and was killed in 1298
at the battle of Falkirk, where
his name is still perpetuated in the district of Grahamston. The lament
for his death put into the mouth of Wallace by Henry the Minstrel forms
one of the finest passages in the famous poem by that author.

"Quhen thai him
fand, and gud Wallace him saw,
He lychtyt doun, and
hynt him fra thaim aw
In armys vp. Behaldand his
paill face,
He kyssyt him, and cryt full oft, ‘Allace!
My best brothir in warld that euir I had!
My afald freynd quhen I was hardest stad!
My hop, my heill, thow was in maist honourI
My faith, my help, my strenthiast in stour!
In the was wyt,
fredom, and hardines;
In the was treuth, manheid,
and nobilnes;
In the was rewll, in the was gouernans;
In the was wertu withoutyn warians;
In the lawte, in the was gret largnes;
In the gentrice, in the was stedfastnes.
Thow was gret caus
off wynnyng off Scotland,
Thocht I began and tuk the
wer on hand.
I wow to God that has the warld in wauld
Thi dede sall be to Sotheroun full der sauld.Martyr thow art for
Scotlandis rycht and me;
I sail the wenge, or ellis tharfor de.’"

The grave of this hero in
Falkirk kirkyard is still to be seen, with table stones of three
successive periods above it. As an evidence of the honour in which his
memory was held, it is recalled that, after the second battle of Falkirk
in 1746, when the Highlanders wished to do special honour to one of
their opponents, Sir Robert Munro, who had fallen, they opened the grave
of Sir John the Graeme and buried him beside the dust of the hero. One
great two-handed sword of Sir John the Graeme is preserved at Buchanan
Castle by the Duke of Montrose; another was long in possession of the
Grahams of Orchil, and is now treasured by the Free Mason Lodge at
Auchterarder.

Sir John the Graeme was
also owner of the estates of Abercorn and of Dundaff on the Carron. The
latter, at the eastern end of the Kilsyth hills, was once a royal
forest. It is in this ancient forest, on the lands of Halbertshire, now
Herbertshire, that tradition places the incident which forms the subject
of the famous ballad of "Gil Morice," on which John Home
founded his still more famous "Tragedy of Douglas." The Earl’s
Burn and Earl’s Hill are said to take their name from the incident,
and the Earl’s son of the ballad may possibly have been a scion of the
House of Graham.

By way of contrast to the
fame of Sir John the Graham, it
is recorded that in 1320 Sir Patrick de Graeme was one of the five
knights who took part with William de Soulis, the seneschal, and David
de Brechin, the King’s nephew, in the formidable Soulis conspiracy to
overthrow the King and place the crown on the head of Lord Soulis as a
lineal descendant of the daughter of Alexander II. The details of the
conspiracy are unknown, but Graham, with several others brought to the
trial, was acquitted, while David de Brechin was executed as a traitor,
and Soulis himself died as a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle. A grim
memorial of this conspiracy came to light in the nineteenth century,
when the monument to Sir David Baird was being erected on the site of
the old castle of the Earls of Strathearn near Crieff. Accidentally
breaking into a vault, the workmen discovered, along with human remains,
certain gold ornaments and domestic vessels which were identified as
tragic relics of the Countess of Strathearn, through whose confession
the plot was revealed, and who was sentenced to life-long imprisonment
by Bruce.

Sir David Graham of
Kincardine was also owner of the estate of Cardross on the Clyde, and
exchanged it for the lands of Old Montrose in Forfarshire, from which his
family was in later days to take its title. It was to Cardross that Bruce
retired in his latter days, and in Cardross Castle (caer ros, "the
castle on the point") occurred the scene, so touchingly described by
John Barbour, when the great king bade farewell to his knights, entrusted
the Good Lord James of Douglas with the carrying of his heart to the Holy
Land, and peacefully breathed his last.

Another Sir David Graham,
son of the purchaser of Old Montrose, was also remarkable for patriotism
and valour. It was he who, at the approach of the English at the battle of
Durham in 1346, earnestly besought King David II. to order the Scottish
cavalry to charge the English archers. "Give me," he cried, as
these archers came nearer and nearer, "Give me but a hundred horse
and I will scatter them all." Then, even this being refused him, the
brave baron, followed only by his own vassals, rode against the bowmen.
But it was too late; the deadly shower was already on the way, and the day
was lost. Graham’s horse was shot under him and he himself with
difficulty escaped, while the King, grievously wounded by two arrows, was
captured. Graham was one of the Scottish barons who afterwards secured the
ransom of David II from the English. To secure the King’s freedom, Sir
David’s son, afterwards Sir Patrick Graham, was for a time one of the
Scottish hostages in England.

It is of this Sir Patrick
Graham that the story is told in Winton’s Chronicle, how, having
returned from a visit to France, he was challenged by Lord Richard Talbot
to run a course in a tournament, and was wounded through his habergeon.
During the supper which followed, an English knight asked Graham to run
three courses on the morrow. " Sir Knight," replied the
Scotsman, "if you would joust with me I advise you to rise early and
confess, after which you will soon be delivered." The jest proved
true, for on the morrow in the first course Graham pierced the English
knight deep through the harness, and he died on the spot.

Sir Patrick Graham was
twice married. William, his son by his first wife, was his successor, and
ancestor of the great House of Montrose, For his second wife Sir Patrick
married Egidia, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Ralston, half-brother of
King Robert II., and by her he had four sons, of whom the eldest, Sir
Patrick Graham, married Eupheme, Countess of Strathearn, only daughter of
David, Earl of Strathearn, eldest son of King Robert II., by his second
marriage with Euphemia Ross. In right of his wife, Graham became Earl of
Strathearn, and also brought himself and his descendants into the great
struggle, in which the children by King Robert’s second marriage claimed
the crown on the pretext that the King’s first marriage to Elizabeth
Mure of Rowallan had not been a lawful one. This Sir Patrick Graham was
killed in 1413 by Sir John Drummond, and left an only child, Malise, also
known as Earl of Strathearn. It was he whom King James I. deprived of the
earldom, on the plea that it was a male fief, and made Earl of Menteith
instead; and it was this action which moved the Earl’s uncle, Sir Robert
Graham, to renounce his allegiance, and to plot and carry out the
assassination of the King at Perth. It should be remembered, however, that
in this plot Earl Malise himself seems to have had no share. He lived till
1492, and left three sons, from the eldest of whom descended the Earls of
Menteith and Airth, and from the second, Sir John Graham of Kilbryde, near
Doune, known for his valour as "Sir John with the bright sword,"
the Grahams of the Debatable Land, now represented by the Grahams of Esk,
of Netherby, and of Norton-Conyers, and of whom came Sir Richard Graham,
Viscount Preston, who was twice arrested and twice pardoned for the part
he played on the side Qf James VII. during the troubles of the Revolution.

Of this Menteith family
came William Graham, Earl of Menteith, Chief Justice
and President of the Council of Scotland in Charles I.’s time, who
petitioned that King, and had the earldom of Strathearn restored to him,
but who foolishly proceeded to go about wagging his head and hinting
significantly of "blood that was redder than the King’s" and
his "cousin Charles on the throne." The matter was brought to
the notice of Charles by Drummond of Hawthornden in his "Considerations to the King," and as a result the poor nobleman was
forthwith stripped of both his earldoms and all his offices, and only
after a time re—admitted to the Scottish peerage as Earl of Airth.

After the accession of King
James VI. to the English throne, the Grahams of the Debatable Land, who by
their turbulence had been something of a problem to both kingdoms, were
transported to the north of Ireland, the county of Cumberland being taxed
to the amount of £408 19s. 9d. sterling for the purpose, and they are
still among the stoutest of the Ulster men who form the backbone of Irish
prosperity at the present hour. It is said to have been regarding this
transportation that the song Sweet Ennerdale " was
written to the pathetic air "I will awa’ and will not tarry."
It is preserved in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’, and
runs as follows:

"Now fare thee well,
sweet Ennerdale,
Baith kith and countrie,
I bid adieu,
For I maun away, and I
may not stay,
To some uncouth land
which I never knew.

To wear the blue I
think it best
Of all the colours that
I see,
And I’ll wear it for
the gallant Grahams,
That are banished from
their am countrie.

I have no gold, I have
no land,
I have no pearl nor
precious stane,
But I would sell my
silken snood,
To see the gallant
Gralianis come hame.

In Wallace days, when
they began,
Sir John the Graham did
bear the gre;
Through all the lands
of Scotland wide,
He was the Lord of the
south countrie.

And so was seen full
many a tim;
For the summer flowers
did never spring,
But every Graham in
armour bright
Would then appear
before the king.

They all were dressed
in armour sheen,
Upon the pleasant banks
of Tay,
Before a king they
might be seen
These gallant Grahams
in array.

Much interesting
information regarding the later earls of Menteith—including that last,
most pathetic figure of all, the Beggar Earl who died under a hedge, and
lies buried in Bonhill kirkyard—is to be found in the writings of Mr. R.
B. Cunninghame Graham, late of Gartmore, now of Ardoch, who is said
himself to have grounds for making a formal claim to the earldom.

Meanwhile the main line of
the Grahams of Kincardine went on. Sir William Graham, son of Sir Patrick,
was, like his father, twice married. By his first wife, Mariota, daughter
of Sir John Oliphant of Aberdalgie, he had a son whose descendants carried
on the Kincardine line; but secondly, he also made, like his father, a
royal alliance, marrying the Princess Mary, second daughter of King Robert
III. This lady had already been twice married, to George, Earl of Angus,
and to Sir James Kennedy of Dunure, and after Sir William Graham’s death
she married a fourth husband, Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath. By his
union with this Princess, Sir William Graham became ancestor of the
Grahams of Fintry, of whom one was the very useful friend to Robert Burns;
likewise of the Grahams of Claverhouse, the most famous of whom was that
John Graham, Viscount Dundee, immortalised by Sir Walter Scott in the song
"Bonnie Dundee," who lives in Covenanting annals as the best
hated of the royal officers, and in the history of his time as the
brilliant commander of the forces of James VII. in Scotland, who fell at
the moment of victory at the battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. Another of
the sons of Sir Walter Graham and the Princess Mary was Patrick, Bishop of
St. Andrews, who prevailed upon Pope Sextus V. to declare the Scottish
Church completely independent of the Archbishop of York, and to erect St.
Andrews into a bishopric, who was sent back to Scotland as papal legate,
only to find his efforts at reform raise a storm among the Scottish nobles
and bishops, who procured his ruin and his imprisonment in Loch Leven
Castle, where he died in 1478. From the same pair were also descended the
Graemes of Garvock, and the gallant Sir Thomas Graeme, the hero of Barossa,
who was made Lord Lynedoch in 1814.

Sir William Graham himself
was for a time, along with others of the first rank and consequence, a
hostage in England for the great Earl of Douglas who had been captured at
the battle of Homildon Hill; and while there it is likely that he made the
acquaintance of the young King James I., then also a prisoner at the
English court. He was succeeded by his grandson, Patrick Graham of
Kincardine, who, after acting as one of the Lords of the Regency following
the assassination of James I., was made a Lord of Parliament about the
year 1445 by the title of Lord Graham. William, his son, the second Lord
Graham, married Lady Ann Douglas, daughter of George, fourth Earl of
Angus, "the Red Douglas" of James II.’s time, who in Scottish
tradition is remembered as having "put down the Black." The
third Lord Graham took part in 1488 at the battle of Sauchieburn, in which
James III. fell. In that battle the King’s rearward division was
commanded by Graham, Earl of Menteith, with Lords Erskine and Graham as
his lieutenants, and, at a later day, in 1504, on account of his
gallantry, Lord Graham was made Earl of Montrose. Still later, at the
battle of Flodden in 1513, he led part of the Scottish vanguard along with
the Earl of Crawford, and fell along with his royal master on the
disastrous field. By his third wife, a daughter of Lord Halyburton, the
Earl was the ancestor of the Grahams of Inchbraikie, while his eldest son,
the second Earl, was ancestor, through the youngest of his four sons, of
the Grahams of Orchil and Killearn.

The eldest son of the
second Earl, Robert, Lord Graham, fell at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. He
had married a daughter of the third Lord Fleming, Great Chamberlain of
Scotland, and his son John, the third Earl, who fought for the Regent
Moray at Langside, was Chancellor of the Kingdom from 1598 till 1604, and
afterwards Viceroy of Scotland, James VI. having by that time crossed the
Border to assume the English crown.

Lord Graham’s eldest son,
John, the fourth Earl, married the eldest daughter of William, first Earl
of Gowrie, and sister of the luckless Earl who fell in the so-called
Gowrie Conspiracy; and the son of the pair, James, the fifth Earl, born in
1612, was the most brilliant and illustrious of all his race, the Great
Marquess of Montrose. [You can read all about Montrose in our General
History of the Highlands].

The story of this great
leader is too well known to be repeated here. His succession of victories
over the armies of the Covenant at Tippermuir, Alford, Aberdeen,
Inverlochy, and Kilsyth, forms one of the most romantic chapters of
Scottish history, and his surprise and defeat at Philiphaugh, with his
later capture in the north of Scotland, his vindictive execution at
Edinburgh on 21st May, 1650, and his splendid second burial in the
Cathedral of St. Giles eleven years later, after the Restoration, have
excited interest and sympathy hardly less than that excited by the careers
and misfortunes of Mary Queen of Scots and Prince Charles Edward Stewart.

The estates and honours of
the house were instantly restored to the Marquess’s son by Charles II.
at the Restoration. This second Marquess, known as "the Good,"
married a daughter of the second Earl of Morton, and his successor
espoused a daughter of the Duke of Rothes, Chancellor of Scotland. During
the Great Marquess’s campaign, at the instance of hisimplacable
enemy, the Marquess of Argyll, the ancient family stronghold of Kincardine
Castle was besieged, captured, and destroyed. Afterwards, for a time, the
family residence was Mugdock Castle, near Glasgow, and there was a town
house in the Drygate of that city. It was at Mugdock that in the days of
Charles II., when the Earl of Middleton was engaged in the proceedings
which brought about the persecution of the Covenanters, he is said to have
engaged with his associates in wild bacchanalian revels. The stronghold is
said to have been acquired by the Grahams as early as the twelfth century.
But in 1682 the third Marquess acquired the extensive estates on Loch
Lomond side, which had previously belonged to the chiefs of Buchanan, and
from that time onward Buchanan House and its successor, Buchanan Castle,
at the mouth of the Endrick, have been the chief seats of the family.

The fourth Marquess
acquired the property of the Duke of Lennox in 1702, was made a knight of
the Garter and High Admiral of Scotland in 1705, and Duke of Montrose two
years later, for his part as Lord President of the Council in Scotland in
promoting the Union. On the accession of George I. in 1714 he became one
of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State.

To William, the second
Duke, the Highlands owe the repeal of the Act of 1747 which suppressed the
use of the Highland dress. For this service, performed in 1782, his
Grace’s memory is held in much veneration by the Gael. Duncan Ban
Macintyre, the famous Gaelic bard, wrote a poem on the occasion, and for
long the Highlanders gratefully drank as a favourite toast, "deoch
slainte Mhon’t-ros." It is interesting to remember that the
daughter of this peer, Lady Lucy Graham, was married to Archibald Stewart,
Lord Douglas, the gainer of the famous Douglas Cause, in which the House
of Lords had decided that he was the actual son of Sir James Stewart of
Grandtully and Lady Jane Douglas, sister of the first and last Duke of
Douglas.

The Grahams successfully
avoided the troubles of the Jacobite risings, though they had some minor
difficulties with the wild caterans of Clan Gregor, to whose raids their
estates, lying on the Highland line on Loch Lomond side, were exposed.
During the Earl of Mar’s rebellion in 1715, the Government placed a
garrison on the Duke’s property at Drymen, to defend the western passes
from the Highlands, by Aberfoyle and Balmaha; and a little later there are
stories of the "bold Rob Roy," whose headquarters were at
Inversnaid, and who laid claim to Craigroyston on the lower slopes of Ben
Lomond as his patrimony, seizing the Duke’s factor, and compelling him
by successive souzings in the loch to yield up the rents he had collected
in that neighbourhood. But from the time of the Union downward the House
of Montrose has been one of the most loyal and active in the Government
service of the country. The third Duke, who succeeded in 1796, was a
Knight of the Garter, Lord Justice-General of Scotland, Lord Lieutenant of
the Counties of Stirling and Dunbarton, and Chancellor of the University
of Glasgow. The fourth Duke was a Knight of the Thistle, Lord Lieutenant
of Stirlingshire, and for a time Postmaster-General. The present Duke of
Montrose was his third son, two elder brothers of the name of James having
died in 1846 and 1872 respectively. His Grace is the holder of some seven
titles in the peerage of Scotland and two in the peerage of Great Britain.
He is hereditary Sheriff of Dunbartonshire, General of the Royal Archers
of Scotland, and Lord Lieutenant of the county of Stirling. He is a Knight
of the Thistle and an A.D.C.O to the King, and has been Lord Clerk
Register of Scotland since 1890. For a few years he held a commission in
the Coldstream Guards and the 5th Lancers, and at a later day he was
commanding officer of the Queen’s Own Glasgow Yeomanry and the 3rd
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. During the South African War he
volunteered for active service, and, with his battalion was first on
garrison duty for twelve months in Ireland, and afterwards, in South
Africa, commanded the column which constructed the block-houses in the
north-west of Cape Colony for a distance of 370 miles, thus contributing
very substantially to the means by which the war was finally brought to an
end. It is interesting to note that by his marriage with the daughter of
Sir Frederick Graham, Bart., of Netherby, in the old Debatable Land, the
Duke linked up two of the most ancient lines of the House of Graham.

The heir, again, of the
House’s honours, the Marquess of Graham, has also done distinguished
service to his country. In early life he went to sea, and very soon
obtained the certificate of a master mariner. He served through the South
African War in the Army Service Corps, and for his services received the
medal and three clasps; and, more recently, with the rank of commander, he
organised the Clyde Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, which
amply proved its worth by sending strong contingents upon active service
in the war of 1914. His lordship married in 1906 Lady Mary Douglas
Hamilton, only child of the late twelfth Duke of Hamilton, and heiress of
the island of Arran, which in the future is likely to form a notable
addition to the family estates.

The surname Graeme, or Graham, is said to be
derived from the Gaelic word grumach, applied to a person of a stern countenance and
manner. It may possibly, however, be connected with the British word grym, signifying
strength, seen in grime's dyke, erroneously called Graham's dyke, the name popularly given
to the wall of Antoninus, from an absurd fable of Fordun and Boece, that one Greme,
traditionally said to have giverned Scotland during the minority of the fabulous Eugene
the Second, broke through the mightly rampart erected by the Romans between the rivers
Forth and Clyde. It is unfortunate for this fiction that the first authenticated person
who bore the name in North Britain was Sir William de Graeme (the undoubted ancestor of
the Dukes of Montrose and all "the gallant Grahams" in this country), who came
to Scotland in the reign of David the First, from whom he received the lands of Abercorn
and Dalkeith, and witnessed the charter of that monarch to the monks of the abbey of
Holyrood in 1128. In Gaelic grim means war, battle. Anciently, the word Grimesdike was
applied to trenches, roads and boundaries and was not confined to Scotland.

This Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, had two sons, Peter and John, in whom the
direct line was carried on. The elder, Peter de Graham, styled of Dalkeith and Abercorn,
had also two sons, Henry and William. Henry the elder, witnessed some of the charters of
King William the Lion. He was succeeded by his son Henry, whose son, also named Henry, by
marrying the daughter of Roger Avenel (who died in 1243), acquired the extensive estates
of Avenel, in Eskdale. His grandson, Sir John de Graham, who dying without issue, was the
last of the elder line of the original stock of the Grahams.

The male line of the family was carried on by the younger son of Sir William de Graham
first above mentioned, John de Graham, whose son, David de Graham, obtained from his
cousin, Henry, the son of Peter de Graham, the lands of Clifton and Clifton Hall in
MidLothian, and from King William the Lion those of Charlton and Barrowfield, as well as
the lordship of Kinnaber, all in Forfarshire. This was the first connection of the family
with the district near Montrose, whence they subsequently derived their ducal title. His
eldest son, also names Sir David de Graham, had, from Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in the
reign of King Alexander the Second, with other lands, those of Dundaff, in Stirlingshire.
The son of Sir David de Graham last mentioned, also named Sir David de Graham, who appears
to have held the office of sheriff of the county of Berwick, acquired from Malise, Earl of
Strathearn, ther lands of Kincardine, in Perthshire, which became one of the chief
designations of the family. He died about 1270. By his wife, Annabella, daughter of
Robert, Earl of Strathearn, he had three sons, namely, Sir Patrick, who succeedee him; the
celebrated Sir John the Graham, the companion of Wallace; and Sir David, one of the
nominees, his eldest brother being another, of Baliol, in his competition for the crown of
Scotland, 1292. His eldest son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, fell in battle against
the English at Dunbar, 28th April 1296. Another son, Sir David de Graham, a favourite name
among the early Grahams, was also designed of Kincardine. From Robert the First, in
consideration of his good and faithful services, he had several grants, and exchanged with
that monarch his property of Cardross in Dumbartonshire for the lands of "Old
Montrose" in Forfarshire. He died in 1327.

Sir William Graham of Kincardine, his great-grandson, was frequently employed in
negociations with the English relative to the liberation of King James the First. He was
twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, and John. His second wide was the
princess Mary Stewart, second daughter of King Robert the Second, widow of the Earl of
Angus and of Sir James Kennedy of Dunure; after Sir William Fraham's death she took for he
fourth husband Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath. By this lady he had five sons, namely,
1. Sir Robert Graham of Strathcarron, ancestor of the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse,
and of Duntrune. 2. Patrick Graham, consecrated bishop of Brechin, in 1463, and three
years after translated to the see of St Andrews. 3. William, ancestor of the Grahams of
Garvoch in Perthshire, from a younger son of whome came the Grahams of Balgowan, the most
celebrated fo which family was the gallant Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, the hero of
Barossa. 4. Henry, of whom nothing is known. 5. Walter, of Wallacetown, Dumbartonshire,
ancestor of the Grahams of Knockdolian in Carricj, and their cadets.

Patrick Graham, of Kincardine, the son of Alexander, the eldest son, succeeded his
grandfather, and created a peer of parliament in 1451, under the title of Lord Graham. He
died in 1465. His only son, William, second Lord Graham, married lady Anne Douglas, eldest
daughter of the fourth Earl of Angus, and had two sons, William, third Lord Graham, and
George, ancestor of the Grahams of Calendar.

William, third Lord Graham, sat in the first parliament of King James the Fourth, 1488;
and on 3d March, 1504-5, he was created Earl of Montrose, a charter being granted to him
of that date, of his hereditary lands of "Auld Montrose", which were then
erected into a free barony and earldom to be called the barony and earldom of Montrose. It
is from these lands, therefore, and not from the town of Montrose, that the family take
their titles of earl and duke. He fell at the battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513. He
was thrice married. By his first wife, Annabella, daughter of Lord Drummond, he had a son,
second Earl of Montrose; by his second wife, Janet, a daughter of Sir Archibald Edmonstone
of Duntreath, he had three daughters; and by his third wife, Christian Wavance of Segy,
daughter of Thomas Wavance of Stevenston, and widow of the ninth Lord Halyburton of
Dirleton, two sons, Patrick, ancestor of the Graems of Inchbrakie, Perthshire; and Andrew,
consecrated bsihop of Dunblane in 1575, and the first protestant bishoip of that see.

From the third son of the second Earl of Montrose came the Grahams of Orchil, and from the
fourth son the Grahams of Killearn. From the second son of the third earl descended the
Grahams of Braco, who once possessed a baronetcy of Nova Scotia, conferred on the first of
the family, 28th September 1625. From the third son of the same earl, the Grahams of
Scottistoun derived their descent.

The Grahams of the borders are descended from Sir John Graham of Kilbrude, called, from
his bravery, Sir John "With the bright sword", second son of Malise, Earl first
of Strathearn, and afterwards of Menteith, by his wife, the Lady Ann Vere, daughter of
Henry, Earl of Oxford.

Sir John "with the bright sword" was also ancestor of the Grahams of Gartmore in
Perthshire. Sir William Graham of Gartmore, created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1665,
married Elizabeth, second daughter of John Graham, Lord Kilpont (son of the Earl of
Airth), who was slain by one of his own vassals, James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, in the camp
of the Marquis of Montrose, in 1644; and had a son, Sir John Graham, second baronet of
Gartmore, declared insane in 1696. On his death, 12th July 1708, without issue, the
baronetcy became extinct, and the representation of the family devolved upon his sister
Mary, wife of James Hodge, Esq, of Gladsmuir, advocate. Their only daughter Mary Hodge,
married, in 1701, William, son of John Graham of Callingod, and had a son, William Graham,
who assumed the title of Earl of Menteith.

The castle of Kilbryde, near Dunblane, built by Sir John
"with the bright sword", in 1460, was possessed by his representatives, the
Earls of Menteith, till 1640, when it was sold. The Menteith Grahams were called the
Grahams "of the hens", from the following circumstances. An armed party of the
Stewarts of Appin, headed by Donald Nan Ord, called Donald the Hammer, in their retreat
from the disastrous field of Pinkie in 1547, in passing the lake of Menteith, stopped at a
house of the Earl of Menteith, where a large feast, consisting principally of poultry, was
prepared for a marriage party, and ate up all the provisions; but, immediately pursued,
they were overtaken in the gorge of a pass, near a rock called Craig-Vad, or the Wolf's
cliff, where a bloody encounter took place. The earl and nearly the whole of his followers
were killed, and Donald of the Hammer escaped, amidst the darkness of the night, with only
a single attendant. From the cause of the fight the Highlanders gave the name of Gramoch
na Gerie, or "Graham of the hens", to the Menteith branch ever after.

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